Straits Times Interactive - TECH AND SCIENCE

New hope for Rafflesia flower

9 Nov 2009 04:34 GMT

ULU GEROH (Malaysia) - DEEP in the jungles of Southeast Asia blooms the world's biggest flower - a massive fleshy orb designed by nature to attract insects by mimicking the colour and stench of rotting meat.

Work harmful to old

9 Nov 2009 03:57 GMT

LONDON - WORKING conditions must be improved for older people if governments and companies are to persuade them to continue contributing to economic growth into their old age, according to Swedish and British scientists.

Researchers analysed almost 15,000 employees in France and found that they felt increasingly less well in the years leading up to retirement, but dramatically better after they stopped work - suggesting they saw work as harmful to their health.

Early treatment for spine

9 Nov 2009 00:21 GMT

CHICAGO - INJECTING tiny polymer spheres into rats right after a spinal cord injury helped the animals recover movement and prevented secondary nerve damage that often follows such injuries, US researchers said on Sunday.

The experimental treatment uses spheres called copolymer micelles that fuse with injured nerve fibers and prevent inflammation from doing more damage to surrounding nerves.

Solar harvest in space

8 Nov 2009 22:00 GMT

TOKYO - IT MAY sound like a sci-fi vision, but Japan's space agency is deadly serious: by 2030 it wants to collect solar power in space and zap it down to Earth, using laser beams or microwaves.

The government has just picked a group of companies and a team of researchers tasked with turning the ambitious, multi-billion-dollar dream of unlimited clean energy into reality in coming decades.

'Warfare 2' strikes on Tues

8 Nov 2009 22:00 GMT

SAN FRANCISCO - MODERN Warfare 2 strikes on Tuesday in a worldwide assault eagerly anticipated by lovers of the blockbuster role-playing battle videogame franchise.

Videogame publisher Activision Blizzard believes that the sixth installment in the Call of Duty franchise could be the most powerful entertainment industry launch of the year, outshining even Hollywood blockbusters.